A family, saved by grace, hoping to be ambassadors for Christ by igniting passion for God and compassion for others through solid biblical teaching and by revealing their hearts.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

I am a week late in posting this, but last weekend, on December 2nd and 3rd, we celebrated Tanner Gracen Riley's 8th Birthday. He was born December 3, 1998, after almost 20 hours of loving labor, our first child. We packed up our family, as did the Schein's, and spent the weekend at the Volcano National Park on the Big Island . We had volcano cake and as you can see breathed volcanic fumes (a lot of stinky sulfur). You can see behind us boys the fumes arising from the mouth of Kilauea, the one volcano on the island that is currently active and spilling forth lava from an open vent. The crater itself is simply releasing gases and hasn't had lava in it for a few years, but there is lava flowing from the same system via a vent in the mountain down to the ocean. We actually went and viewed the lava flowing into the sea after dark. We weren't able to hike, with our littlest ones, as close as you can go, but we looked through a telescope like device from a couple of miles away and saw the actual orange flow disappearing into a roiling sea, complete with lots of steam!

We are very proud of our son, Tanner. Wherever we go on campus we hear big and little voices saying "Hi, Tanner!" It would seem that there isn't a soul on campus that doesn't know his name. He seems to be able to talk to anyone and it seems that almost anyone enjoys talking with him. Please pray for our son, Tanner, that God will continue to grow Him in strength and wisdom and in favor with God and man.

The Scheins are an amazing YWAM family who have been serving as missionaries for some time. Hoger, from Hamburg, Germany, and Jillie, from New Zealand, met in the mission field and have had all three of their boys along the way, serving in places like South Africa, England, and Germany. Pray that God will continue to multiply their ministry as they return to New Zealand for the holidays and then to South Africa.